Desktop External Hard Drives

LaCie desktop drive is fast and reliable

Desktop drives have the most capacity, but they are larger than portable drives (about the size of a book) and require an external power supply.

Often, desktop drives that seem fine in expert tests turn out to be total duds for owners -- but the LaCie d2 Quadra pleases both parties. It gets just about everything right, according to reviews: It's speedy, works seamlessly with PCs and Macs, and includes all four connection options and their cables (eSATA, FireWire 400 and 800 and USB 2.0), and owners find it unusually reliable. The French company's designer storage products have been popular with Mac users for years, and several PC-centric reviewers also say the d2 Quadra is a terrific drive. In fact, the only complaint lodged in some prior years' reviews -- that the drive was pricey -- no longer holds true: The d2 Quadra costs no more than some less reliable desktop drives that don't have eSATA.

The LaCie d2 Quadra comes in 500 GB (*Est. $125 for 500 GB), 1 TB (*Est. $155), 1.5 TB (*Est. $220) and 2 TB (*Est. $280) versions. Reviews say the included backup software for Windows and Mac operating systems is very good, and the d2 Quadra is also compatible with Apple's Time Machine backup software. Finally, experts say the slim white box is both quiet and sleek: "It's just plain chic," writes Trudy Walsh at Government Computer News. "The d2 Quadra is going to make the tchotchkes on your desk look shabby and unhip."

Other eSATA-equipped drives are plagued by bad consumer reviews. The SimpleTech ProDrive (*Est. $115 for 500 GB) includes all four connection options (eSATA, FireWire 400 and 800 and USB 2.0) plus 2 GB of free online backup. It's a favorite of the experts at TomsHardware.com, and it's "unequivocally the best performer" in a head-to-head test of 11 desktop drives at Government Computer News. However, user after user at Amazon.com warns against the ProDrive, saying it crashes or it isn't recognized by their computers.

You'll still find outstanding reviews for the critics' former favorite, the Seagate FreeAgent Pro -- but Seagate recently discontinued it. Its replacement, the eSATA-equipped Seagate FreeAgent XTreme (*Est. $150 for 500 GB) gets ho-hum ratings from experts, and plenty of poor reviews from distraught owners who lost data when their new FreeAgent XTreme failed. Likewise, the cheaper USB-only Seagate FreeAgent Desk (*Est. $80 for 500 GB) is praised by a couple of expert sources, but it is panned by owners who lost data when their drives quickly broke.

The runner-up with the most consistently positive ratings is smaller, slower, has fewer features, is USB-only and Windows-only -- but it costs just as much per gigabyte as the top-rated LaCie d2 Quadra. The Seagate Replica offers 250 GB (*Est. $90) and 500 GB (*Est. $130 for 500 GB) versions. It's designed to be an effortless, in-the-background automatic backup solution for PCs, and testers at both Wired and Laptop Magazine say it succeeds at that. But the disk spins more slowly than most other external desktop drives (5,400 RPM vs. 7,200 RPM), and Laptop says "power users may find it limiting."

Cheaper drives don't tend to hold up well in real life, owners report. The Western Digital My Book Home Edition (*Est. $100 for 500 GB) and Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus (*Est. $75 for 500 GB) each get a couple of nods from experts, but owner reviews at Amazon.com range from mixed to poor. Both offer USB and FireWire connections, but neither offers eSATA.

ioSafe Solo: Fireproof, waterproof protection for your data

There are other protective external hard drives on the market, but none works quite like the new-for-2009 ioSafe Solo, experts say.

"Other protective hard drives are essentially regular hard drives with a safe wrapped around them," The Wall Street Journal reports. But the ioSafe's fireproof insulation is chemically embedded with water that vaporizes during a fire to keep the enclosed drive cool. Meanwhile, the vents that ordinarily allow the drive to cool itself automatically close against water or fire.

IoSafe says the Solo will protect data from a 1,550-degree Fahrenheit fire for half an hour or from being sunk in 10 feet of fresh or salt water for three days. The Wall Street Journal posts a video that shows the unit being dunked and torched beyond recognition -- but the drive inside remains untouched and works perfectly.

For added peace of mind, ioSafe includes a year of data recovery with its three-year warranty (you can pay extra for up to five years of recovery and warranty). The ioSafe Solo gets a rare five-star rating at Amazon.com, where owners say it works great with both PCs and Macs. It offers only a USB 2.0 interface -- no eSATA or FireWire -- but it transfers data faster than a conventional Western Digital My Book drive in a head-to-head test at BigBruin.com.

However, the 15-pound ioSafe Solo weighs a lot more than other desktop drives. It costs a bit more, too, and it doesn't include any backup software. It's offered in 500 GB (*Est. $140 for 500 GB), 1 TB (*Est. $230) and 1.5 TB (*Est. $295) capacities.